The Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) will send a request to the Iowa State Legislature to re-evaluate the impact of SF2435.
Many reports, including a report on the Senate’s previous elections, and two presentations were also given at its meeting Monday.
Requesting the Iowa State Legislature to re-evaluate the impact of SF 2435
The Senate is requesting the State Legislature re-evaluate the impact of SF2435.
According to the bill, “the recent enactment of SF 2435 by the Iowa State Legislature threatens numerous programs that foster a supportive and inclusive community at Iowa State University, placing valuable student-centered initiatives at risk of closure.”
Following a discussion about possible retaliation from the Iowa Board of Regents, the Senate unanimously approved the bill with two amendments: removing verbiage that includes terms such as “vague,” and adding the Faculty Senate as a recipient of the resolution. Copies of the resolution will be sent to the vice president for Student Affairs, the Deans of Student Affairs, the President of the Board of Regents and the Chair of the Education Committee at the State Legislature.
A second bill, Senate Bill F24–03, which summarizes GPSS allocations for Oct. 2024, was unanimously approved.
President and vice president reports
Senate President Wren Bouwman and Vice President Ceren Ordas gave reports respectively.
Bouwman gave an update on diversity, equity and inclusion and the decisions by the Board of Regents during the President’s report.
“There were four things that happened that you may not be aware of,” Bouwman said. “The first and perhaps most impactful thing is that the Center for LGBTQ Student Success will just be called ‘The Center’ as of Dec. 31.”
According to previous reporting from the Daily, “In March 2023, the president of the board appointed a group to ‘conduct a comprehensive study and review of all Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and efforts’ at the three regent universities. On June 1, Gov. Reynolds signed into law Senate File 560, which directed the Board of Regents to ‘conduct a comprehensive study and review of the diversity, equity and inclusion programs and efforts of each institution under [its] control.’”
“This is frankly tragic, and because we’re a student organization, we’re allowed to say that,” Bouwman said.
Ordas also gave a report, detailing the Senate’s October meeting.
“Our October at-large election has been formally contested,” Ordas said. “We thought that everyone that was a part of the elections were formally invited to last month’s meeting, and that’s what we said during the meeting. They were not.”
Ordas said they should have been invited and, therefore, the rules committee met to gather the Senate’s next steps. According to Ordas, they have every right to contest the elections.
“As the rules committee, one-by-one, decided that their claim was valid due to the fact that they were not present and it was our fault,” Ordas said. “They should have been [invited] for this to be a fair election because they are not here to speak for themselves and talk about their platform that they were going to have.”
Ordas said she “passed the ball to the elections committee and they will meet and then decide whether to hold a new election or not, as it’s written in our bylaws.”
Ordas also detailed the need for international students to understand taxes.
Other members of the executive team gave reports.
Presentations
Erin Conlan, the graduate student success specialist, gave a presentation, provided a Q&A for senators who may have questions, ranging from tuition struggles to roommate situations and provided senators with resources and contacts if they or someone they know are struggling.
Juan Schmidt, a Graduate Faculty Cabinet representative, also gave a presentation, outlining the tasks of the Graduate Faculty Cabinet. Schmidt explained that the structure of the graduate faculty cabinet changed in Fall 2024. Since the beginning of the semester, the Graduate Faculty Cabinet has become a “subpart” of the Faculty Senate.
According to previous reporting from the Daily, there were “consistent complaints and concerns across campus that the Graduate Council operates in isolation and that only the 15 members of the Council are engaged in decision-making that impacts all graduate faculty and graduate and professional students and postdoctoral associates.”
The minutes from last month’s meeting were unanimously approved. The next GPSS meeting is slated for Dec. 11.
